"We have to be incredibly careful about this." I began as I sat in the family room with my eyes fixated on the fireplace. "Bastian is a very cautious man, and he employees more guards than you might realize. He'll keep one or two of his best at his side when he's out, but others act in disguise and keep eyes on everyone is comes within a ten foot radius of Bastian. It won't be easy to get to him, out in the open or somewhere private. When he meets with clients, he picks public places but with private areas where he can meet with them discretely, he usually doubles his guards for the occasion, but it's the only way we can make this work."
"So, what's the plan exactly?" Murphy asked me from his seat in the armchair across from mine.
"Chances are he's already heard news of my father's death and since mother spun a story insisting she found him that way he'll be certain it was us. Mother will meet with him to ensure I am dead and that my father's death was completely unrelated. A lot of this depends on where he decides to set the meet for, once we have that information we'll be able to fine tune the rest of the details."
"How do we even know he'll be willing to meet with her?" Conner questioned as he leaned against the wall near the fireplace.
"He wouldn't refuse me." My mother insisted. "I'll tell him now that Boris has assumed power of the family business, he'll be sending me to rework a few details of the contract Bastian hold with the Volkov family."
"Bastian would be stupid to turn her down." I chimed in. "He's in too deep with the Volkov's, he knows any fuck up like telling Albina Volkov no would certainly result badly for him."
"Well, telling her yes will probably be worse." Murphy joked with a short laugh.
"Mora than likely." I smirked.
"So when do we start?" Conner asked.
"We'll have to act as soon as possible. If we wait too long, he'll be suspicious. He'll wonder why Boris would wait so long to rework the contract when he's already had power for a certain amount of time." My mother informed Conner.
"But is Val up for this already? She can still barely walk without feeling too weak." Conner argued.
"We don't have much choice. Time is everything with something like this." Mother insisted.
"Besides, you and Murphy will be the muscle of this." I added. "Don't worry Conner, we're going to get this done right, you don't have the worry about me." Conner didn't look at me as I talked, he kept his eyes mostly on his feet if he wasn't looking at either my mother or Murphy. I wasn't sure why he so suddenly couldn't stand to see me, but I didn't have much time to care; I had my ex fiancés assassination to plan, after all.
"Why don't we get you back to bed for a while darling, you've been up for some time now." My mother suggested as she slowly started moving towards me.
"I'd rather walk for a bit." I insisted as I started to stand from my chair.
"Well let me help you." Murphy stood up and was at my side faster than I registered, and had his hands gently on my arm to help my keep balance as I got to my feet.
"I'm going to get started on dinner then." My mother announced as she walked from the family room as Murphy was still helping me manage to make steps from my chair.
Conner said nothing as we slowly made our exit, and we said nothing to Conner. He just remained still where he leaned against the wall in absolute silence with his eyes glued to his feet as if he thought they were going to run away from him. His recent change in attitude was starting to worry me, but I knew better than to ask while we were still within earshot of him. Once Murphy and I managed to make it out of the family room and down the hall a bit I turned to him to speak, but it was like he already knew what I was going to say, "It's my fault."
"What?" I acted like I didn't know what he was talking about and he sighed softly.
"I told me that I kissed you. I kind of bragged about it." He sighed again. "It upset him. He's jealous, but not because he wants you or anything like that…well, maybe a little, but mostly because it's always just been me and him. We've never really had any kind of serious romantic relationships that ever came between us. Friends are different, friends become part of the group, friends become like our family, but with girls…we both always knew if one of us were to fall in love, it wouldn't be just us anymore and that concept always sort of frightened us more than we both realized. Add interests in the same girl and you've got one very awkward situation on your hands."
I remained silent as I listened to Murphy, my thoughts running wild with all sorts of things. I wasn't sure what to say so I just said nothing. Murphy of course picked up on that and continued, "This isn't your fault Val. Honestly, he's overreacting. He'll come to terms with it."
"And what if he doesn't?" I murmured under my breath.
"He will." Murphy reassured me.
After I got tired from walking around the estate, Murphy helped me back to my room where I napped a little until my mother brought me dinner. I ate alone in my room at a small table set up by one the large windows so I could watch the snow fall from the night sky. As I sat there, alone with my food and my thoughts I found my inner dialogue lingering on the issue of Conner and Murphy more than my plans for Bastian.
Suddenly I felt a wave of incredible guilt crashed against me and I leaned back in my chair, my dinner not so much as even half finished. What was I thinking? That Murphy and I were going to have some kind of romantic happily ever after? After everything I had done to him, after everything I had indirectly put him through, I actually for a second thought it was possible. But it wasn't. That realization came quick and hard and pained me to even admit, even in just my own thoughts. It was never going to work, more so doomed to fail now more than ever with Conner's stubbornness involved. Conner would never let it happen, and even if he did it would crush Murphy to cause a rift between them and that was exactly what would happen. No matter how hard they both tried to understand the situation they would fail. Like Murphy said, neither of them had ever had any real relationships before, and this one was far from normality and would only make it even more difficult.
I felt the tears swell in my eyes and fall hot down my cheeks, burning my face as I rubbed them away. I felt so pathetic. For one, thinking I could ever have anything normal with Murphy. Two, losing my focus on what was really important-murdering Bastian, slowly and painfully. I would only bring discontent between Murphy and Conner and Murphy would only further distract me. It had to stop, all of it. I couldn't let myself fall further than I already had and I desperately needed to repress what emotions had already come to exist. I knew it would hurt Murphy, but I also knew in the long run it'd only hurt him even more if I didn't.